I think what the OP went through is pretty much re-zoning of an agricultural land to commercial/industrial land which probably will run into similar roadblocks in Western world too? Of course, not saying it will take this long but have heard about similar bureaucracy.<p>Small town governments in USA at least are very strict with their zoning codes and based on things what I have heard, changing the zone sometimes require even putting the change in a ballot! Mostly requires council approval I guess but the process is similarly full of red tape. I remember a very similar article by someone who tried to start a business at their home in some US state and the red tape he had to go through.
It's interesting because you can see how theoretically any of these requirements would be a reasonable step before starting a manufacturing operations. I know in silicon valley for example many environmental problems were caused by insufficient oversight of manufacturing. However, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, as described in the article. I'm sorry to hear this is happening and I wish you good luck in challenging this process.<p>Maybe a default-yes approach would be more efficient. You should be required to post notice of your plans to these offices, then they have two months to raise any objections. If they do not, then you can go ahead. If they do, they're required to keep the process moving or you can sue to remove the road block.
I wonder about the larger context here.<p>Generally speaking in developed counties you can't just buy any given farmland and rezone it ... at will, just because you want to. That's not an automatic thing.<p>Nobody wants a smelting plant to just show up next to their town and pop up because someone wanted to build a smelting plant .... or something with massive truck traffic ... that now goes through small neighborhoods / school zones day and night ...<p>Having said that, the bureaucracy described is pretty thick. And at least in the US there's plenty of land that is locally zoned in a way that could change from farmland to something like 'light industrial' without that level of bureaucracy.<p>But you need to seek it out and not just buy rando farm land and announce you want to build a factory too..<p>I feel like this story both could happen in the US, but also would be fairly avoidable too.<p>I recall a hilarious story about a cosmetic company who operated exclusively in China but wanted to diversity their manufacturing around a bit and bought a building in a historic district in the US. But they did zero homework and were astonished to find out that nobody wanted trucks coming and going day and night through this small town's city streets and 'staging' in the local school parking lot. The clueless CEO said 'this was never a problem in China'...
Much of the world operates like this, to soak you for as much money as possible before you give up and pay, even if they provide nothing actually useful or meaningful. It only looks reasonable from their perspective which is to maximize their income. Tax collectors in Rome 2 millennia ago were expected to gain their income by extorting more tax than people owned; as long as the state got what they expected, anything else was yours, which provided a great incentive for tax collectors to soak everyone for as much as possible, and ensured the state got what it wanted.<p>It's an interesting study in economics, unless you are the takee.
Try building a factory on farmland in, say UK.<p>This doesn't seem to have anything to do with 'starting a manufacturing unit', but everything to do with completely legitimate government land-use planning / zoning rules, etc, albeit a seemingly inefficient process.<p>The author should have performed due diligence on that process before embarking.
This is such an amazing writeup. You are an extremely patient person. I hope this gets some press coverage in India. It is shameful that the whole process is so stuck in bureaucracy
I remember recently reading a lot of articles on India trying to attract manufacturing plants in the country. Do they have to face the same issues as outlined by OP or are they handled differently?<p>Also, are they looking at streamlining some of these processes?<p>I don't have a problem with few of the questions that OP complained about. For example, the health certificate looks like something, they might ask to check for health safety in the workplace and also probably to see natural resources outside are not being polluted.
There is zero benefit of setting manufacturing unit in India.<p>Afaik, most of the manufacturing that happens here is assembly.<p>Unless your product is one of those mass market, multi million dollar revenue makers you'll be eaten alive by adminstrative costs.
I hate to say this, but what he went through is reality. :(<p>HOWEVER my friend, if there is a will there is a way. ;)<p>Is “bribe” the only way? It is one, but not the only one. Maybe you can rent space, maybe you can buy a land already classified as “NA”. Maybe apply under several “Special Economic Zones”.<p>I still would have preferred if I could start on my own land.
Yikes. It sucks that you had to go through this. I find it appalling that so many bureaucratic jobs exist only to sustain their own existence: providing little value to those who pay their salary via taxes.<p>Do you think this process would've been (significantly?) simpler if it wasn't agricultural land involved?
This is much harder than it needs to be. But I also don't think agricultural land should be rezoned willy-nilly. Much of India's population (~60%) rely on agriculture. It should be with great thought that private parties should be able to convert the land (not just because it reduces land able to grow food and agriproducts), but also because it can be a way to dispossess the poor. For an example, see the plight of those whose land was taken to found a new capital city in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The landowners were more or less given a good price for their land. However, those who rely on the land - farm laborers and their dependents - haven't seen an improvement in their situation. They've essentially been turned into migrant workers; they were able to work on local land before. This is essentially what the English gentry did during the enclosures. The resulting "reserve army of labor" helped seed the English Industrial Revolution.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclosure</a>
This sounds worse than Eastern Europe. My wife once had interactions with Polish authorities and the first official told her immediately what amount of bribe money will be necessary to get it done quickly, contrary to everybody involved sitting it out as long as possible.
When she asked why the bribe is so high, the government employee explained to her whom of his colleagues he has to pay himself to get it done quickly.<p>I respect your refusal to pay bribes, but I believe you would have already received your approval if you were willing to pay a bribe. Not sure much those delays cost you in regards of your time invested and lost opportunities.<p>I'd go to the first person you talked to, ask how much needs to be gifted to him personally so he/she can take care of this. Then pay half of it at the beginning and the second half once you have received your approvals.
When both the Talathi and Circle Officer denied, all I thought was "why didn't you pay them". That's why I think relying on agents who handle the bureaucracy and know which palms to grease are worth their weight in gold in developing countries.<p>I think during our life time we'll see India massively improve in this area. They've already made so much progress over the past 20 years, it's a really exciting country to watch.<p>They need more coverage in Western media like this though. Similar with China. An effective form of change is shaming the department or process, and if it's covered in Western media - at least this is true of India, it often makes local news. (See Hassan Minaj's coverage on Modi.)
Sounds just like Ukraine.<p>It's surprising (or didnt mentioned) that every official doesnt point you to a "professional consultant with lots of experience that will help you navigate through process for a fee".<p>Although changing land purpose definitely should be involved process: I may have missed it, but it isn't mentioned what kind of manufacturing is going to be there. It might require lot of water, it might be very environmentally unfriendly
I think there needs to be regulation. You can't just build whatever you want on an agricultural land even if you own it. Lets say someone builds a Chemical factory, what would the neighboring land owners or residents do if it starts polluting the land?
Okay, I'll assume either negligence or innocence for the OP; but one important point is: Is there a lack of industrial zoned land in that region? Why didn't you buy or lease an industrial area to build whatever you are going to build.<p>Where I live, industrial lands run at 5-10 times the price of an agricultural land. So someone might justify going through the lengthy process (and bribe officials along the way) because he is going to profit at the end of it. At the detriment of people living or running their farms nearby.<p>My guess is that many people here are sympathetic because they didn't have their lives ruined by someone opening up a manufacturing unit next to their homes.
Hernando de Soto did exactly this work almost 2 decades ago. He documented how many steps and weeks it takes to register a property or start a business. His thesis is that this cumbersome process limits capital formation in a business which then limits being able to leverage it via a loan and hence limits the size of small enterprises. The same goes for property since most small entrepreneurs use their home as collateral. This has locked up trillions in value which can be unlocked. His work is fascinating and was frequently mentioned for a Nobel.<p>[1] Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCFW5ZN/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCFW5ZN/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...</a><p>[2] Mystery of Capital Video:
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco18FWM85E" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco18FWM85E</a>
Have been through this process. So I know how this person feels. My simple question is with so much tech why cannot the NOCs be obtained digitally and also why can't this NOC process be time bound? Why should we spend months? If it's not rejected with valid reasons in digital format then why cannot the NOC be deemed valid? What is the use of so many tech brains in India if we can't create a simple system digitally? What political leadership is this that we have to suffer even after 73 years of independence?
TBH, apart from the bribes it mostly sounds pretty similar to the UK. Perhaps this person would have had an easier time if they had hired a professional to deal with it for them.<p>I often visit sites with potential clients and I have to tell them sorry, I can try, but you will pay a lot of fees to me and the local government and you will likely never get permission to build here.<p>Off the top of my head, here are some permissions / consultations you could need to build a private house in a UK, most sites wont require all of these at the same time but many sites will have a least one need for a specialist site survey of some kind:<p>Planning permission (Regulation of the impact of your build on the community):
- Roads department consultation
- Water supplier consultation
- Wastewater consultation with water authority and EPA
- Archaeological service consultation
- Natural heritage / ecology.
- Historic environment consultation.
- Coal authority (abandoned mines)
- Contaminated land check
- Landscape capacity study
- Full set of plans, sections and elevations and report to show:
- Materials
- Relation to existing buildings
- Effect on landscape
- Land use
- Room use
- Placement of windows / doors in relation to existing buildings
- etc...<p>Building control / Building warrant (Safety of the finished building):
- Radon assessment
- Structural engineers certificate.
- SAP (energy use) calculation
- Full set of plans, sections and elevations showing compliance with all building regulations
- Consultation with Fire Authority
- etc...<p>CDM regulations require the client to appoint a competent builder / architect / engineer etc
Party wall agreement
....and some more I can't be bothered to type out here....<p>This whole process typically takes a minimum of 6 months before you get permission to break ground. Some of the consultations are a one line response saying 'no objection' or they can require you to get specialist surveys done, this can drag things out longer.<p>For a factory the process will have several more levels of detail for each of the points above. E.g each point under planning permission might require a specialist consultant to visit the site, make tests or surveys and perform desk studies and then the submission of, I don't know, say, a 20 page written report with their findings.
I am an indian. I dont have any problems with filling out forms, or providing documents. As long as the process is well documented. But in india it doesnt work that way.<p>Even in the age of computers, some departments are printing forms using ink from the middle ages on paper from the egyptians. You require a prime lens attached to your eyes to decipher the 7point font on the form.
I believe one can get land for manufacturing in MIDC area much more easily -> <a href="https://services.midcindia.org/Services/VacantPlotsDetails.aspx" rel="nofollow">https://services.midcindia.org/Services/VacantPlotsDetails.a...</a> by getting allotment directly from government or buying resell.
Thanks for confirming (was aware of) the fact that the most of Govt Dept job needs to be get done by citizens themselves for themselves! And one need to pay Extra for getting it done through them.
Same situation in Karnataka.
Would like to share this on other social media to support you
Nicely written, I am a farmer in Maharashtra and this is the case with all our subsidies, loans etc which the govt so proudly declared every year. It is as if we are set to fail in acquiring one of these. Hang in there tho hopefully you will get it .
I totally understand setting up manufacturing unit on agricultural land in India is a pain , also you should see it coming as you are using "agricultural" land for manufacturing. Also there is a dedicated industrial zone setup in each states and it would have been easier to do industrial setup there. But I totally get the point, its a cobweb of permissions and N.O.C , not even including under the table settlements , not sure if that was the case here.
Seems like a classic 'tragedy of the anticommons', just like early post-communist Russia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_anticommons" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_anticommons</a>
How does this compare to the zoning process in America? It sounds like OP is trying to build a factory from scratch on land that isn't zoned for factories? It's actually surprising one person can just run back and forth and get all the paperwork versus hiring a lawyer to do it.